Through The Eyes of a Nose Picker

So last night we took The Mayor to the big annual holiday parade here in Denver, The Parade of Lights. It's at night, everything's covered in lights, and it's Denver, so it's cold in December at night. As awesome as that may sound, Ace and I are not always good about taking Jack to stuff like that. We're kind of old farts and don't always have the time and energy and enthusiasm to go and do the super-duper-rah-rah-family-happy-time stuff. But I thought this sounded fun. And you know what? It really was awesome , and I almost cried while we were there. I know...hard to believe....me being a big, emotional wimp.

As we were waiting in anticipation for the parade to start (45+ minutes), I kept telling Jack how excited I was (and he should be) and trying to explain what we would see and how neat it would be, since he'd never been to a parade before. He could tell something super cool was going to happen.

LOVE ME or I'll come after your family!

Long story not-so-short, I had a really, really fun time at the parade. It was so cool to see the look on Jack's face when the horses went by, and when he saw the dude dressed like a psychotic red muppet Elmo. He was 100% mesmerized for almost an hour. And it hit me while watching him and feeling such inexplicable enjoyment at watching a silly parade, that I was getting the amazing opportunity to see things through the eyes of a child.

Yeah, yeah, I know. We've all heard it so many times from parents. But when it happens to you, it's just really cool. As we grow and mature, most of us lose the magic and the ability to see the beauty and wonder of the world. And the kids can't really appreciate it for what it is. This experience was the best of both worlds, and THAT is what made is so special, freaky puppets or not.